10 Characteristics of an Effective Soccer Coach

An effective soccer coach must not only have an in-depth knowledge in everything about soccer. He must also possess special characteristics that will help him become a great coach and produce a winning soccer team. A successful soccer team does not just rely on the physical and technical requirements, but usually more than those. The soccer coach must develop skills to fulfill them.

Here are 10 typical features that every soccer coaches must have.

1. Good Role Model

Every soccer team needs a coach that is a good role model. You have to understand that they need someone worth imitating. Check yourself if you are willing to be your soccer team's role model. Put in mind that you are going to be their servant-leader and they are relying their success on you. You would be teaching them positive attitudes to win a game. It would be a shame if you teach something you don't actually apply to yourself.

2. Admirable Appearance


Being a good soccer coach, you must never overlook the importance of appearance. Make sure you look neat and tidy. Cleanliness could add up to your professional look and this will help you gain trust and respect of the team. Remember that you will be the players' role model, their soccer coach.

3. Be Punctual

Always be early to arrive in the soccer training. This way, you can manage the training set-up before the players arrive. It will also help you to not waste your time and can focus on the training objectives by starting on time during the sessions. If you will be late, there will be big chances that the soccer players will get bored easily, or even be impatient because you are not being professional.

4. Good teacher

An effective soccer coach is a good teacher. Part of your duty is to teach them everything about soccer especially the basics like passing, dribbling, shooting and tackling. You have to make it sure that your soccer team is learning and growing their skills. Always remember to give clear and correct instructions during the training sessions. You can't coach the soccer players who don't have any knowledge about the do's and don'ts in soccer. In teaching soccer skills, demonstrating the drills is better than oral instructions.

5. Friendly

Establish a good player-coach relationship with your soccer team by being friendly to them. You must understand their personalities by knowing their personal lifestyles and interests. This way, you could analyze their varied emotional and mental characteristics and develop strategies that could motivate them more accordingly. But be reminded, you can get personal but stay professional.

6. Good Listener

It is important to constantly seek the soccer team's involvement, and one way of this is by asking their views after every game. As the soccer coach, you must be a good listener because every person has his own brilliant ideas to share. Always encourage them to speak out and take what they say into consideration. Make notes if necessary, and include some recommendations in your soccer session plan.

7. Good Communicator

It is important that a soccer coach knows the importance of communication. This includes recognizing the players' performances and achievements. Encourage them to do better and praise them for a game well done. Be conscious with using your words because a coach's words are powerful and will bring a big impact to the team.

8. Development

Each soccer player's development is essential. As their coach and role model, you must not only teach them soccer basic skills, but also social skills like discipline, patience, determination, and teamwork. Always put as one of your goals the development of the team players.

9. Team Motivator

Always develop activities in the soccer training session that will help motivate each soccer player to do better every game. Don't forget to remind them their goals and missions on why they wanted to learn soccer and create a winning team. Words of encouragement and ways for development are very useful.

10. Goal-Centered

Whatever may happen, always look unto your soccer team's goal - Why you are working so hard, why the soccer players are determined to learn and follow every instructions, why their parents keep on supporting your team. You are all doing your best to reach that common goal. An effective soccer coach knows how to picture out that goal to the players' minds.

If you can apply these 10 Soccer Coach must-have's, then you will be the soccer players' favorite coach ever. Always remember to give them the chance to achieve their full potentials. Soccer is one great enjoyable game in the world, make sure you put that in their minds.

The World's Most Beloved Sport - The History of Soccer

While it is undisputed that the origins of modern soccer, or football, originated in Britain, there is a great deal of evidence that points to this beloved game as having an older history.

Where did the game of soccer really begin, and how old is it? To understand how many different varieties of "soccer" there are, you need to understand a bit about the older versions of the game and how they have evolved.

Below, you will find a list of the predominant cultures that had a variety of soccer, and learn how each one differs from what we play today. And no, they never used anything like Lotto shinguards back then either!

    Chinese Soccer History
    Japanese Soccer History
    Egyptian Soccer History
    Greek/Roman Soccer History
    British Soccer History

Chinese Soccer History

To many, this is the oldest version of soccer to exist. However, there is quite a lot of controversy of whether or not this is the oldest, or Japan's version is the elder. The Chinese version of the game, originally named "Tsu Chu", involved players on a field that had to hit a leather ball stuffed with fur into a small hole. Like Soccer, no hands were permitted during the play of the game, and it was considered an honor to be a member of a team.

The Emperor of the Han Dynasty, when the game was developed, was an avid player and fan, and spread the popularity of this game all over China during his reign. This roughly dates back to 300 B.C., although there is controversy on the subject of dating, which could result in the origins of the game being as far back as 5000 B.C. Regardless, this version of Soccer is extremely old. Despite that, there is still a version of Tsu Chu played today. While the two games are similar, Tsu Chu has had no effect on the modern version of the game, as it was originally developed and created for play in Great Britain.

Japanese Soccer History

Kemari, the Japanese version of "Soccer", is perhaps one of the most different forms of the sport, in comparison to modern soccer. Kemari was a game of "Keep it up", much like modern hacky sacks, although used with a larger ball that was stuffed with saw dust. This version involves a "pitch", or the field, designated by the selection of four trees, the cherry, maple, pine and willow. Many great houses in Japan would grow trees to have a permanent pitch, or field, established.

Kemari was normally played with two to twelve players. Established in roughly 1004 B.C., it vies for position of the oldest game with China's Tsu Chu. In fact, China's Tsu Chu players and Japan's Kemari players were the first to have an "International" game of their versions of Soccer, which is dated to have occurred in roughly 50 B.C., although a definite date of 611 A.D. is known. Regardless, this game stands with China as a sister sport to Soccer, while it never affected the modern version of the game.

Egyptian Soccer History


While not much is known about Egyptian Soccer, or other ball games, it is thought there was a version of a type of ball game played by young women during the age of Baqet III. On his tomb, images of this sport were depicted, although no one is certain how the game was played or whether or not it truly affected the outcome of modern soccer. Recordings of this game date as far back as 2500 B.C., although not much more is known asides the fact that it was played with a ball. The lack of information on the sport and how it was played has eliminated it from runnings as the first evidence of a game similar to soccer.

Greek/Roman Soccer History

Perhaps the closest relative to modern soccer are the games that were formed by the Greeks during the prime of their culture. They had numerous varieties of football style games, some of which required hands, some of which forbade hands. In the end, after the Roman conquering of Greece, the game Harpastum is what modern soccer would be based from. This game, probably a modified version of the Greek's "Harpaston", which translates roughly to handball. While grossly misnamed, this game is what is considered to be one of the precursors to modern soccer.

British Soccer History

In Britain during the 8th century, soccer was created, not as a recreational sport, but as a war game. One of the stories of the original roots of the sport comes from when a Danish Prince was beheaded, and his head was used as a ball and was kicked around. Ever since this 'legendary' tale, villages and other communities would play a game where they would have to kick a ball to a specific goal. It was a violent game, where injury and death were not uncommon, but it was popular nevertheless. In fact, it was so violent, that in 1331, King Edward the III passed laws to try to stop the playing of the game. It did not work, however, and the sport continued on.

There are even stories of soccer games that involved hundreds upon hundreds of players. In these games, there were many deaths, some resulting in the hundreds. It wasn't until 1815 when Eton College set up a series of rules for the game that it became less violent and more of a true sport. At this time, other colleges and universities took up the banner and began to play under similar rules. Later, the rules were evaluated and judged, and the Cambridge rules were created as a result in 1848. In the Cambridge rules, shin-kicking, carrying the ball and tripping were all forbidden. Rugby rules allowed these aspects, and the two varieties of soccer, or football, split to form their own followings.

On October 26, 1863, London schools and sports club sent representatives to the Freemason's Tavern, where the Football Association was formed. Rugby supporters left this association to form the Rugby Association. This is where the birth of modern soccer began. In 1969, the Football Association finalized the modern game of soccer by forbidding the use of hands in the game.

The term "Soccer" was coined when someone was asked if he was a Rugger, which is a Rugby player. The -er signified that the person participated in a a particular sport. The individual, Charles Wreford Brown, replied with "Soccer!", taking the phrase from Association, SOC, and adding the -er. The term stuck. While British individuals still call the game Football, Americans and other countries call it Soccer, especially if they have heavy support in American Football present. Ever since the foundation of the Association, "Football" has risen in popularity, becoming one of the best love games in the history of Earth. Now, hundreds of thousands play the sport, although it lacks the initial violence present at its creation.

Football Boots (Soccer Cleats) The History

Football Boots: Earliest Recorded - King Henry VIII in 1526

King Henry VIII's football boots were listed within the Great Wardrobe of 1526, a shopping list of the day. They were made by his personal shoemaker Cornelius Johnson in 1525, at a cost of 4 shillings, the equivalent of £100 in today's money. Little is known about them, as there is no surviving example, but the royal football boots are known to have been made of strong leather, ankle high and heavier than the normal shoe of the day.

Football Boots - The 1800's

Moving forward 300 years saw football developing and gaining popularity throughout Britain, but still remaining as an unstructured and informal pastime, with teams representing local factories and villages in a burgeoning industrial nation. Players would wear their hard, leather work boots, which were long laced and steel toe-capped as the first football boots. These football boots would also have metal studs or tacks hammered into them to increase ground grip and stability.

As laws become integrated into the game in the late 1800's, so saw the first shift in football boots to a slipper (or soccus) style shoe, with players of the same team starting to wear the same boots for the first time. Laws also allowed for studs, which had to be rounded. These leather studs, also known as cleats, were hammered into the early football boots, which for the first time moved away from the earlier favoured work boots. These football boots weighed 500g and were made of thick, hard leather going up the ankle for increased protection. The football boots would double in weight when wet and had six studs in the sole. The football boot had arrived...

Football Boots - The 1900's to 1940's

Football boot styles remained relatively constant throughout the 1900's up to the end of the second world war. The most significant events in the football boot world in the first part of the twentieth century were the formation of several football boot producers who are still making football boots today, including Gola (1905), Valsport (1920) and Danish football boot maker Hummel (1923).

Over in Germany, Dassler brothers Adolf and Rudolf formed the Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) in Herzogenaurach in 1924 and began producing football boots in 1925 which had 6 or 7 replaceable, nailed studs, which could be changed according to the weather conditions of play.

Football Boots - The 1940's to 1960's

Football boot styles shifted significantly after the end of the second world war, as air travel became cheaper and more international fixtures were played. This saw the lighter, more flexible football boot being worn by the South Americans being thrust onto the world stage, and their ball skills and technical ability amazed all those that watched them. Football boot production shifted to producing a lighter football boot with the focus on kicking and controlling the ball rather than simply producing a piece of protective footwear.

1948 saw the formation of the Adidas company by Adolf (Adi) Dassler after a falling out with his brother that was to form the cornerstone of football boot maker rivalry for the preceding years up to today. Brother Rudolf founded the beginnings of the Puma company in 1948, quickly producing the Puma Atom football boot. This led to interchangeable screw in studs made of plastic or rubber for the first time, reputedly by Puma in the early 1950's but the honour is also claimed by Adidas (Read the Story on Footy-Boots). Football boots of the time were still over the ankle, but were now being made of a mixture of synthetic materials and leather, producing and even lighter shoe for the players of the day to display their skills with.

Football Boots - The 1960's

The technological developments of the sixties bought a momentous step-change in design which saw the lower cut design introduced for the first time in football history. This change allowed players to move faster and saw the likes of Pele wearing Puma football boots in the 1962 World Cup Finals. Adidas, though, quickly emerged as the market leader, a position it claims until the present day. In the World Cup Finals of 1966, an astonishing 75% of players wore the Adidas football boot.

The 1960's also saw several other football boot makers joining the market with their own brands and styling including Mitre (1960), Joma (1965) and Asics (1964).

Football Boots - The 1970's

The seventies began with the iconic 1970 World Cup Finals which saw a sublime Brazilian team lift the trophy with Pele again at the helm, this time wearing the Puma King football boot. The decade itself will be remembered for the way in which football boot sponsorship took off, where players were being paid to wear only one brand. In terms of design and style, technological advancements produced lighter boots, and a variety of colours, including for the first time, the all-white football boot.

In 1979, Adidas produced the world's best selling football boot the Copa Mundial, built of kangaroo leather and built for speed and versatility. Although Adidas remained dominant, several other football boot makers joined the fray including Italian football boot maker Diadora (1977).

Football Boots - The 1980's

The greatest development of recent times in the design and technology of football boots was developed in the eighties by former player Craig Johnston, who created the Predator football boot, which was eventually released by Adidas in the 1990's. Johnston designed the Predator to provide greater traction between football boot and the ball, and football boot and the ground. The design allowed for greater surface areas to come into contact with the ball when being hit by the football boot, with a series of power and swerve zones within the striking area allowing the player to create greater power and swerve when hitting the "sweet spots". The eighties also saw football boots for the first time being made by English company Umbro (1985), Italy's Lotto and Spain's Kelme (1982).

Football Boots - 1990's

1994 saw Adidas release the Craig Johnston designed Predator with its revolutionary design, styling and technology making it an instant and lasting success. The Predator by now featured polymer extrusion technologies and materials allowing for a more flexible sole as well as the conventional studs being replaced by a bladed design covering the sole, giving a more stable base for the player. In 1995 Adidas released their bladed outsole traxion technology which are tapered shaped blades. Puma hit back in 1996 with a foam-free midsole football boot, known as Puma Cell Technology, to which Adidas responded again, this time with wedge shaped studs in the same year. The nineties saw new football boot producers Mizuno release their Mizuno Wave in 1997. Other new football boots came from Reebok (1992) and Uhlsport (1993) with other companies also joining the ever increasing, lucrative and competitive market place. Most significantly the nineties saw the entry of Nike, the world's biggest sportswear producer, immediately making an impact with its Nike Mercurial soccer boot (1998), weighing in at just 200g.

Football Boots - 2000+

As technology advanced still further, the application of the new research and developments were seen in the years into the new millennium right up to the present day and this has led to a reinforcement of the market positions of the big three football boot makers and sellers, Puma, Nike and Adidas (incorporating Reebok since 2006). Fortunately, there still remains room in the market place for the smaller producer that does not have the big money endorsement contracts at its disposal, such as Mizuno, Diadora, Lotto, Hummel and Nomis.

Recent developments since 2000 have seen the Nomis Wet control technology producing a sticky boot (2002), the Craig Johnston Pig Boot (2003), shark technology by Kelme (2006) and the exceptional design of the Lotto Zhero Gravity laceless football boots (2006) all of which underpin the successes that these smaller makers can achieve by producing specialised and technologically advanced football boots that provide a distinct differentiation from the mass produced products of the big three. Laser technology has also helped to produce the world's first fully customised football by Prior 2 Lever, which is perhaps the most exciting and innovative of the recent developments.

Current favourite football boots include Adidas' F50, Tunit and Predator; Nike's Mercurial Vapor III, Air Zoom Total 90s and Tiempo Ronaldinho, Reebok Pro Rage and Umbro X Boots.

Football Boots - The Future

As the debate rages with regards the lack of protection given by modern football boots, and the repercussion in terms of player injuries, there seems little to suggest that the major manufacturers are going to give up their quest for the lightest football boot for a more protective one. The proliferation of big money sponsorship deals, namely Nike Ronaldinho, Adidas with David Beckham and Reebok with Thierry Henry, has become a huge factor that drives the success and sales of a football boot maker, but is viewed as at a cost of injury and stagnation in football boot research and development. All we can predict for the future is integration with sensor technology, lighter and more powerful football boots and more outlandish designs and styles.

Football boots have travelled a long way since King Henry strutted onto the fields of England in the 1500's: the football boot has gone from an everyday protective apparel to a highly designed and cutting edge technological product which is a vital part of the player's equipment. Whatever the colour, the design, the style or the player - we love footy boots!